Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Groan . . . I may have to watch this in theaters

The third movie in the Wolverine series is supposed to come out in March of this year (I think). The writers are riffing off an alternate reality storyline from the comics referred to as Old Man Logan. In the comics, the world is some dystopian hell where the U.S. has been conquered and divided up between various super-villains to control. Logan has killed the X-Men while under the spell of another villain and has run off to live out his life in the desert.

This movie seems to be taking bits of that storyline and running with it. In Logan, we have an aging Logan, his regenerative powers fading, hiding out in Mexico with a mildly insane Professor X. They encounter a young girl who is not at all what she seems and end up on the run from those out to capture this girl.

It seems the girl is supposed to be what the comics referred to as X-23, real name Laura Kinney, and she is basically a clone of Logan with the same mutant abilities -- regenerative healing, heightened senses and seemingly, at least from the trailer, the same berserker rage the comic version of Wolverine was known for.

She also has adamantium claws in her arms, two instead of Logan's three, and if they stay true to the comics, she'll have one in each foot as well.

I've railed long and loud about Disney's butchering of the X-Men character mythology, storylines, timelines and pretty much everything they've done with a comic book series I loved as a kid. I've hated much of what has been done with the Wolverine character, and I hated the first two movies in this series. But I'm liking the look of this one so far. I like that they're going for the R rating. And I know that Hugh Jackman is looking to send this role off in the best possible way. So it might turn out okay.

It's going to be a cool year for movies. Logan, then Wonder Woman, then the Justice League, and I don't know what else in in the pipes. I'm going to feel like a real person actually going out for some entertainment a few times this year.